


Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

by AniseNalci



Series: 7KPP Quarantine Prompts [4]
Category: Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (Visual Novel)
Genre: Also Jasper, Angst and Tragedy, Basically any MC background because this explores Hamin's character, Because Jasper, Character Death, F/M, Mentions of Suicide, Not promising it was done well, Other, Tragedy, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:02:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23734300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniseNalci/pseuds/AniseNalci
Summary: Once upon a time, the shadows used to promise adventure for Hamin. Not anymore.Written in response for 7KPP Prompts (Day 4: Shadow).
Relationships: Hamin & Jasper, Hamin & Leala, Hamin/Main Character, Jasper & Main Character, Jasper/Main Character (if you squint really hard)
Series: 7KPP Quarantine Prompts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1708210
Kudos: 2





	Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Always unbeta'd because I don't have a beta reader. Writing is tiring stuff, so all mistakes are mine.
> 
> Title is from 'Sounds of Silence' by Simon & Garfunkel, popularised by Disturbed. Both versions are amazing. 
> 
> Warning: Main character death! I'm not even joking. (Sorry for the tragedy.)

He stared at the darkness, trying to make sense of the shadows in the dark hall. Once upon a time, the shadows used to promise adventure for Hamin. Not anymore. Here was where he was told to come, if he wanted to rescue what was most precious to him. He did not think twice. What else could it be, other than a threat to him and his Glitter? He would find the dastardly villain and slay him like the bootlicker he most assuredly was. How dare they try to hurt him? If they dared to lay a finger on his Glitter... Hell and the wrath of Calypso would befall them. He would make sure of that.

His Glitter was the most precious thing to him, and he instinctively knew, when he received that ominous letter instructing him to head towards the hall. Very unusual to do so after dinner, long after the rehearsals had finished. _This was a trap!_ It was clear as day. His instincts told him so. Yet there was no time to waste! Her life could be danger, and yes, perhaps he could have called for assistance, but there was no time, and he was no coward. He wasn’t a legendary pirate for no reason. He charged into the darkness of the shadow only to see his beloved gasping under the weight of the props. Blood was trickling.

“ ** _No!_** ”

He repeated that single syllable like a mantra, chanting it like a prayer, as if willing this all to be a bad nightmare from which he would wake up from.

“ _No no no no no no no no…”_

Nearby, he heard a movement. It was his beloved’s shadowy butler, who moved just as well in the shadows as he did.

Hamin gasped, tears streaming down his face. He was not too machismo to cry; his beloved lay in his arms, drawing her last breath…

The light in her eyes dulled, and he knew she would never smile at him in the coy way she did again.

What was life without purpose? Once upon a time, he would have been happy with where he was, a legend among man. What worth was it being a legend, if his love and life had been torn asunder?

He remembered their first meeting. From the very beginning, since the first moment they met, he had been intrigued by her. How could anyone fail to be?

With the exception of Blain, of course, who was as thick of a numbskull as any.

(“You’ve gone soft!” Leala laughed at him when he actually began _waxing poetic_ and making a bigger effort at propriety for her sake. "You mooncalf!"

He didn’t reply. There was no point. Leala was right, but for her, it would have been worth it. For her, he has began to think and plan as he never had before. She was a treasure beyond compare in his eyes.)

She seemed to be gasping for breath. try as he might, he could hardly move the prop away from her broken body. She was dying, and she looked so delicate, so afraid. Her eyes, so expressive, seemed to be trying to say something to him, and yet...

“Let’s go together,” he whispered, as her life slipped away, and her body stilled in his arms.

“No,” came a voice. From the entrance that he came in, he saw her uptight butler – Jasper, his name was, wasn’t it? – right behind him. The stuffy butler must have followed him, only to come upon the tragic scene he and his Glitter made.

By then, of course, the tears were streaming down his face, but he didn't care. What he was more aghast at was the disrespect the butler dared show them, interrupting his last moments with his treasured love. How dare he? And how dare he dismiss Hamin's plea to her? Hamin looked disbelievingly at him. “ _No_?”

“No,” Jasper repeated firmly.

Hamin looked at him - fully looked at him - and his face twisted, etched in fury as he exploded in grief and frustration. “You heartless being! I don’t suppose you have had any tender feeling in your life, did you? She – she was my love, my life. I loved her like the sailor’s call to sea! For her, I would have – I would have done anything and…” his voice broke, and he hugged his Glitter’s body ever closer to his. She felt so warm still, she did not feel dead…

“Who could have thought to hurt her? She was so wonderful,” he tried again, but he kept choking on his words. He couldn’t help but stare at her dull, vacant eyes, her expressionless face. She was so young, it all seemed so wrong.

It was a rhetorical question, of course, but the fuddy-duddy butler knelt by him. He even deigned to pat his shoulder, which forced Hamin to look up. The butler looked as though he’d aged several years in the night. Hamin could make out faint wrinkles and dark circles under his pale eyes. His hair, which had been a lustrous and unusual platinum, seemed to have dulled, and even his eyes had a cast over them. The butler looked very disturbed, and Hamin felt something like regret at judging the man so harshly. He had clearly been close to his charge, that was for certain. Then again, Glitter had been like that; mesmerising, captivating… Once you were fortunate enough to be let into her circle, it seemed impossible to not love her. Of course, perhaps he was biased, as a lover, but still…

“She was an unusual lady, that is for certain, Prince Hamin. But you would do more by her if you stayed strong and avenged her, rather than decided to join her prematurely.”

“How can I live without her, though?” Hamin whispered hoarsely. 

“You don’t. Loss is strange that way. It stays with you, like a scar that never heals completely. Maybe one day, the pain will settle and the stinging will lessen, but you only need to look at it to relive the trauma involved with its infliction.”

The butler stopped patting his shoulder and gripped it in a vice-like manner. “Make no mistake, Prince Hamin. We shall not let her death be in vain.” He paused. “I need to leave and notify Master Jorges. Do _not_ do anything reckless while I’m away.” Then, in a softer voice, he added, “She would not have wanted us to suffer, I don’t think.”

The butler stood and made his way towards the more well-lit areas, and caught sight of a switch. Immediately the hall lit up, and the shadows which had concealed his Glitter and her attacker were illuminated. The props were somewhat destroyed, but they were able to be fixed.

His beautiful Glitter, however, remained broken underneath it all, and so too, was he.

Under his breath, he cursed everything: the shadowy night, this thrice-damned play, and the loss of his Glitter. As the butler left, he turned on all the lights, presumably to ensure that no foul enemy could lurk in the shadow of darkness, so that if they returned, at least Hamin would have a fighting chance (however little he wanted it). It was too late, however, for Glitter, and therefore, it was too late for him as well.

He could sense a storm approaching, and the night wind seemed to echo his rage. He would stalk the hidden enemy that lurked under cover of darkness. The shadows that had once been his friend and promised him adventure no longer appealed to him now, but he knew them well, and now that there was no Glitter to light his way, he would not feel any remorse in exorcising the demons that lingered there.

* * *

_**Fin** _

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope Hamin doesn't do anything drastic after that.


End file.
